


The Solution

by DarthFucamus



Series: First Order Tech [4]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, First Time, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Kylo Ren is a virgin, Light Choking, Light Dom/sub, Loss of Virginity, Plot, Plot Devices, Shameless Smut, Smutember2017, borrowed from canon, but he's pretty good in bed, day 18: first time, fuck your way outta this trap, kylo ren is a dick, the mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard, the mask stays on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 18:13:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12138249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthFucamus/pseuds/DarthFucamus
Summary: Tamira Daws, a junior technician on the Finalizer, has found herself in a potentially awkward situation with her Commander, Kylo Ren, upon discovering their mutual attraction.





	The Solution

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to FancyLadySnackCakes for helping me finish this, and to WitchoftheWestCountry for convincing me to keep the mask on :)

 

Tamira didn't know what to expect being stuck alone with the menacing commander, especially after he’d so thoroughly debased her (or, really, invited her to debase herself.)

But Kylo Ren acted as though nothing had happened, one of his many apparent skills. He began immediately powering up the _Upsilon_ command shuttle with the ease of much practice, ignoring her by all appearances.

She was granted unnerving proof of his professed ability to pilot alone, as half the controls seemed to come online themselves, buttons pressed in sequence, switches flipped, without being directly touched by him. His Force aura spiked, and the dim interior lighting of the shuttle came on, and the fuel line tether from outside came unhitched with a metallic thunk. She imagined hangar techs scurrying around the outside to catch the animate hose as it unhooked itself, and the image made her snicker.

At the sound, he turned his head slightly to look at her, and though it was impossible to know his expression, she couldn’t help but interpret his look as one of annoyance. Her humor died and she sat the rest of the time in uncertain silence.

She might have still been feeling the warm afterglow of the orgasm he’d pulled out of her, but at the moment she felt very much like a junior tech sitting next to one of the most important men in the First Order. It was nerve racking, to be sure, so she made the choice to act as professionally as she could in the context.

“ **All systems online,** ” he said into the comms when the console glowed and twinkled in a multitude of colored lights that shone in the chrome detailing on his mask. “ **The Finalizer is yours, General Hux.** ”

 _“Yes, she is,”_ Hux’s clipped tone answered on the other end of the comms. _“You have sixteen hours before hyperspace jump, Ren. Be sure you are on schedule. I will be.”_

Tamira felt Kylo Ren’s flash of anger seconds before he turned off the comms completely, leaving only the hum of the shuttle’s power and engine systems. She had the distinct impression that the exchange had not been meant for a lowly tech’s ears, and thought it would be best to act like she hadn’t heard it. She'd never personally known Hux be anything less than courteous and professional, at least to the bridge crew and other personnel, but there was clearly some kind of tension between the two of them.

The shuttle lifted, steam billowed out from underneath. They launched through the port hangar’s outer force field  and into dark space. The sound of the wings extending and sensor nodes coming online took the place of the lack of conversation, and Tamira quieted her thoughts to observe the view through the front windows.

Devaron, a lush garden world with only a minor temperature difference between its poles and equator, loomed large in front of them. The stunning greens of its continent-spanning jungles were easy to see, even from orbit. As the shuttle carried them closer to their destination, she saw evidence of civilization scattered over the landscape beneath the dense, humid layer of upper atmosphere.

She glanced toward Kylo Ren out of the corner of her eye and caught him subtly adjusting his groin. How he maintained such stolid composure with cum drying in his pants she had no idea, but it was admirable.

“ **Silence your thoughts, Daws, or keep better guard on them,** ” he ordered sharply, checking the navcon display and adjusting their trajectory. “ **I can’t have your every pointless musing distract me in a crucial moment.** ”

Tamira’s face flashed hot and annoyance tightened in her chest.

“You said-”

“ **What was said earlier isn’t relevant. This isn't about some frivolous physical attraction. The mission is far more important and your constant mental chatter is disruptive.** ”

She glared at him, emboldened by the fact that he wasn’t looking at her. She felt insulted, perhaps cut by his dismissive words, but she was an adult, and she knew how to be a professional. And she couldn’t forget who, and what, he was. It wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with the verbal hostility of a superior, but it was the first time she’d had to take it after being fingered by one of them.

She took a breath to calm the anger and faced the front window. They were flying just beneath the cloud layer, now, far above the mist-soaked forests. Heavy rain battered the ship’s forward shielding as they passed over the ruins of an ancient city.

She was careful when she addressed him again.

“I’ve never been in a situation where guarding my thoughts was necessary. With all due respect, can’t you just... block me out somehow?”

“ **It was never an issue before you were posted to the Finalizer** ” he stated. “ **The Force draws us together in ways I don’t understand. It makes your thoughts regarding me especially loud. And unavoidable.** ”

Mortified with the implications of what he’d just said, Tamira felt herself shrink down in her seat. Kylo Ren maintained a chill demeanor as he changed their heading toward a tall structure emerging over the jungle canopy on the horizon.

Meanwhile, his words played over and over in her head. How many times had she found her thoughts fixing on him involuntarily when he was near, and even when he wasn’t? Her curiosity about the elusive man had become something else entirely. And he couldn’t tune her out. The Force was linking them together for some reason, she wasn’t just imagining it.

“Do you know anything about that…?” she asked, too curious to keep quiet despite her embarrassment. The tower grew in size the closer they became until it blocked the misty white daylight.

“ **No,** ” he answered, bringing the shuttle down over an overgrown circular courtyard. “ **But this temple was built over a vergence in the Force. You might learn something by coming here. I expect I will too, once I find what I’m looking for.** ”

“What is it? If you can tell me,” she said.

“ **A Sith artifact of great worth. And great power. The Supreme Leader thinks there may be use for it, but its retrieval can’t be entrusted to just anyone.** ”

He initiated landing protocols and Tamira settled her nerves as the Shuttle sank down upon its docking legs. Kylo Ren had a sometimes tactless way of speaking, there was no doubt. But she couldn’t deny the opportunity in front of her. Despite imagining all of the ways this could go wrong, being with the Commander on an important mission gave her a bit of a rush that had more to do with her position in the First Order than anything more personal.

He rose to his feet as the shuttle automatically completed the sequence, wings rising and retracting.

“ **Gather what you need from the supplies, we disembark in an hour.** ”

“How likely are we to see combat...?” she asked, drumming her fingers on her thighs. Kylo Ren paused at the entrance to the cockpit.

“ **We won’t be the only ones drawn to the artifact’s power, Daws. But any malevolent entities we encounter likely won’t be affected by conventional weapons.** ”

She was having trouble sitting still all of a sudden, and a strange churning feeling had started to rise from her stomach into her chest.

“Commander, I wasn’t trained for this,” she said as plainly as she could.

“ **Then stay close, and don’t get in my way.** ”

Without another word, he left the cockpit, and Tamira was left wondering what she’d managed to get herself into, both with the mission and the man.

Tamira knew that there was a refresher onboard the shuttle, and she imagined that was where he was going now. She gave the courtyard outside another look before heading to the shuttle’s cargo room to grab one of the pre-prepped ground mission supply kits that had been loaded onboard (probably meant for the troopers that were supposed to be on this mission with him), and a hooded poncho. Considering what he’d said, and her own relative inexperience with weapons, she decided to leave the blaster crate alone.

As the Commander did whatever he needed to do, she sat at the top of the lowered docking ramp and listened to the rain falling outside. Considering his request that she guard her thoughts, Tamira listened to the steady patter and sounds of life spilling from the surrounding jungle, and she made herself concentrate on the meditative mindfulness exercises that she’d been lax with lately.

If it helped her maintain some semblance of privacy around Kylo Ren, all the better.

An hour passed like this, and she had to admit that she was feeling better. Calmer, more composed, and more guarded. It was the best she could do under the circumstances, and without more in-depth training.

She heard him approach, and soon followed closely behind him as he swept across the rain-drenched courtyard. As water rolled off of his shredded half-cape, he gestured and the command shuttle’s docking ramp began to retract.

She noted that he’d brought nothing with him except his lightsaber and felt a little over prepared.

The courtyard looked as though it had been partly destroyed a couple decades ago. Crumbling statues lined the perimeter, and great pits and craters mottled the ground, covered in many years’ worth thick tendrils of vines that had broken through the edges of the surrounding jungle over time.

The building ahead looked as though it might have once had a large staircase leading up from the courtyard, but was little more than a scattered pile of rubble. The doorway it led up to was collapsed. Vegetation had begun to sprout between the cracks and fallen chunks of grey stone, and at the very least, it was impassable.

Tamira scanned the rainy courtyard for another entrance. Thunder rumbled overhead and she tugged her hood closer around her so that water wouldn’t seep in. She was still wearing her bridge tech uniform, which was meant for environmentally-controlled starship interiors, not rain-pelted jungle planets.

A rumbling like thunder began again, but this time she felt the vibrations through her feet. She faced forward to see the Commander raise his left arm, fingers curling. The ground beneath her hummed and her arms erupted in gooseflesh.

The pile of fallen stone blocking the entrance shuddered and quaked. Pieces bigger than her and far heavier shifted where they lay. And with a lazy, one-handed gesture, Kylo Ren flung them aside in either direction.

Chunks of rock and uprooted vegetation smashed into the ground and the broken statues at the edges of the terrace, others tumbled off the ledges into the surrounding forest. Ahead, a dark corridor was exposed.

He walked toward it, stepping carefully over the ruined stairs, and Tamira was forced to scurry after him, still somewhat shocked by the casual display of immense power. She’d never seen anything like it with her own eyes, she’d only read historical accounts about figures from the past, and if they were to believed, feats far more incredible were possible.

Witness firsthand what Kylo Ren was capable of made her faint connection to the Force seem all that more pathetic. She tried not to let it bother her that she would never reach that level of ability. She excelled in many other ways; she’d been near the top of her class in the academy, and though she was neither the youngest nor the brightest, her career as an Ops tech showed much promise, perhaps with a commissioned officer’s ranking in her future.

Inside the entrance, the corridor stretched into darkness untouched by the grey light outside. Tamira shook the water off her hood and felt around behind her for the small nightvision headset strapped to her backpack. She could hear Kylo Ren’s heavy steps ahead in the dark, but his shape was quickly lost to the shadows.

“ **Don’t fall behind, Daws** ,” his voice echoed ahead and down to the left.

In pitch blackness she stayed near, both trying to maintain control of her thoughts and keep a sense of his aura. It was subdued, but when she focused she could feel him, like a soft thrum in the back of her eyeballs.

Even with the headset shining invisibly on the ground in front of her and the back of the Commander’s heels, the interior of the temple was eerie. It smelled of dust and something sweetly rotten. Empty rooms untouched for years echoed with their steps, made it sound like they were being followed.

They made their way carefully down a cracked stone stairway to a lower level, and the hum she’d felt through her feet when he’d moved the rocks was only getting stronger. A static in the air tickled her sinuses, and made her sneeze loudly in the stale air. This time, the echoes she heard back were from something else.

She felt a gentle brush of pins and needles on her chin, and recognizing it as Kylo Ren’s Force presence, looked up to see the Commander gesturing in the darkness ahead for her to halt where she was. He faced forward where he stood at a large open doorway. Her night vision visor didn’t reach far, but she caught sight of something in the pitch blackness behind him, something that emitted its own faint light.

“Commander, what is it?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, though even that seemed too loud in the stillness.

“ **It seems we’ve reached the objective. Far more easily than I’d expected.** ”

He sounded uneasy.

She glanced behind them, afraid, suddenly that they were being watched. She was met with solid darkness past what her night vision could see.

“ **Stay near.** ”

She could see strange runes etched around the doorway as she passed beneath it.

The room was vast, based on the way their footsteps echoed, his heavy loping gait, and her faster steps as she tried to keep up.

She deactivated her visor to see the glowing object up ahead more clearly, though it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the relative dimness.

The object in question was on the far back wall, opposite the door, sitting in an alcove surrounded by a hazy red glow. As they came near, she could see that the object had a face. It was a mask with eyes of black glass that reflected its own red light.

The silence in the chamber was oppressive, except for the sub-sonic thrum nagging at the back of her mind ever since they’d stepped foot inside the temple.

“Do you feel that?” she asked tentatively, unable to tear her eyes away from the mask.

“ **Something isn’t right,** ” he said, halting her with a forearm across her chest. She finally turned to look at him and realized she was able to see him when before she couldn’t. A faint green light caught the textures of his black garments. The source of the light was coming from behind them.

“ **Go Back!** ” Kylo Ren barked suddenly, pulling her shoulder. She turned to see that the inside of the doorway was marked with the same writing as the exterior, but on this side the letters radiated an acid green light.

Something materialized before the doorway, and she skidded to a halt. Adrenaline flooded her system.

A figure emerged from the darkness ahead, flickering like a flame in zero gravity.

Features etched in yellow light came together to form a luminescent humanoid shape as immaterial as smoke. Its head, crowned by a pair of massive horns, resembled a male Devaronian’s, but his legs were suspended above the floor and ended in a smear of dissolving light.

Eyes, bright and hollow, looked right at her.

She realized that it saw her. In that moment, its mouth opened into a silent scream.

Tamira stumbled back, reaching for the blaster she hadn’t thought to bring, and her back hit the Commander’s front. At that moment, a wash of green energy spilled from the wide stone frame to the floor underneath. It looked like a force field, but a kind she’d never seen before.

Kylo Ren’s growl of rage gave her a start.

There was a hissing thrum as he activated his lightsaber, drenching everything around him in crimson light.

Tamira backed away from him, gawking at his weapon. It was the size of a greatsword, bright enough to hurt her dark-adjusted pupils and burn her retinas.

She was mesmerized by the sight, even as she continued to put more distance between her and the rage she could feel emanating from him. Without preamble, he rushed at the smoky amber figure. He brought his lightsaber down on it in a wide arc.

The ghostly figure dissolved the moment he touched it. Kylo Ren barely faltered, he just continued forward, bringing the weapon back around for a second strike. This time he aimed for the green barrier blocking the entrance.

Sparks flew where the plasma column met the field, and the weapon ricocheted hard enough to throw him off balance. He tried again, thrusting this time, but the barrier was unmoved by his attempts to break through.

He was left standing, lightsaber in hand, with his hood down around his shoulders.

He deactivated his blade, and then he spun on his heel and strode away from the door, headed in her direction.

Kylo Ren swept past her until he was standing before the alcove.

“Are we trapped…?” she asked, dreading the answer.

“ **For now,** ” came the terse response, though he didn’t look at her. She followed his gaze and found herself looking into the mask’s black eyes.

She stepped closer, captivated by it.

It was a hammered metal, mouthless and noseless. Black eyes shone like glass. Where the mouth would be was a row of rivets, and the entire tarnished surface of it was textured with evenly spread indentations. The inaudible hum she had felt deep in her core seemed to be coming from it.

Kylo Ren reattached his lightsaber to his belt and paused with his hands hovering before it.

She had questions, about the spectral figure that had appeared, the writing over the door, and the nature of the mask itself. She kept them to herself.

He flexed his fingers and stepped forward. Somehow the mask looked heavy, as in far heavier than was logical. There was a weight to it, a density that couldn’t be quantified, but she could feel in her bones.

Despite this, and his own hesitation, Kylo Ren picked up the mask easily. The red glow seeped from the top of it like fumes, leaving a dissipating trail in the air behind it as he turned it around to see it from different angles and run his gloved fingers over its dented surface.

After a moment, he growled in frustration.

“ **What is your secret?** ” he murmured to himself, thick and deep and low.

“Sir... what is it?”

As if remembering that she was there, he glanced at her.

“ **A test,** ” he answered evasively. “ **Or a trap. Perhaps both.** ”

“Is there anything I can do...?” she asked uncertainly.

“ **Go search for another way out of here,** ” he said, waving his hand impatiently in dismissal.

His flippant tone provoked her own anger, but she bit it back. Clearly this was beyond her capabilities, but it still stung to hear his disdain.

“Yes, Commander.” Tamira didn’t care, she was glad to leave him alone with his ‘artifact’ if it gave her an excuse to get away from him.

She stole another look toward the doorway, but the spirit, or whatever it was, had not returned. She could still picture it, in her mind clearly. Something told her that just because she couldn’t see it, didn’t mean it was gone.

Switching on her visor’s night vision, she started along the perimeter of the room, searching for anything of use. A concealed lever, or hidden door. The walls, ceiling, and floor were solid, almost strangely featureless. Whatever purpose the room might have served at some point, it had long since been cleared of everything but the mask.

She kicked along the corner of the floor and walls and felt visible cracks for any sign of structural weaknesses. She even made a few attempts to wedge the cracks open with the prybar attached to her kit, but the stone was unmovable.

Meanwhile, Kylo Ren strode back to the doorway with the mask in hand, and she was curious enough to stop and watch.

He approached the glowing field and she felt his power gather around him; an increase in air pressure and a ringing in her ears, even from where she stood.

He extended his arm and held the mask before him.

The green incandescent barrier continued glowing as it had been, as unaffected as the words blazing above it.

After a moment, Kylo Ren lowered the mask and cracked his neck. He tried again, using the Force, hand clawed, arm shaking. As when he’d uncovered the entrance, she felt the floor vibrate with the power of it.

He uttered a strained grunt, and then a frustrated snarl before releasing. The ringing in her ears subsided.

He began to pace, slowly, by all appearances oblivious, or uncaring of her presence.

The fact that he seemed to be trying everything he could to break through, and was failing, was disconcerting.

So,Tamira did as she was told and continued to search the cavernous room. She might have liked to help him, she enjoyed puzzles after all, but that would have required him to give her more information about the mission, and she wasn’t going to ask.

She was out of her depth here, and while it was terrifying to realize that she had no control over the situation, there was a certain freedom that came with it.

The Commander could figure this out his own damn self, and if that meant she’d be reassigned to one of the smaller frigates or cruisers if they eventually got out of this, that was just fine with her.

An hour passed, at least, in total silence as Kylo Ren tried multiple methods to get through. He drew his finger around the doorway, speaking a strange language aloud as his hand passed over the symbols. He was reading it, she realized. Whatever language it was, she didn’t recognize it, but there was a solemn cadence to his voice as he spoke the words that gave her pause.

Nothing happened then, either.

She stopped trying to pretend that she was looking for an exit, because there was none. She leaned against the wall beside the alcove and watched as the Commander persisted.

Another hour passed and her nervousness gave way to boredom. She slid to the floor where she’d been leaning and took off her kit in the hopes that she might find something useful inside. She immediately found a water pouch, and took a drink.

Kylo Ren was crouched in front of the door, mask in hand, apparently in deep thought. Agitation came off him in prickly waves.

She briefly wondered if she should offer him a drink. That led to the question of whether he had to take off his helmet to eat and drink. And, if so, what he might actually look like under there. She had no idea, and until she caught a glimpse of his hand in the shuttle, she hadn’t even known if he was human. That thought led her, naturally, to think about what he’d done with that hand just moments before she caught sight of it.

She stopped her train of thought there, remembering that she needed to try and control her wandering musings, though her unoccupied mind was prone to wander. If he wanted water, he could ask. She doubted he would.

She delved deeper into the kit, but found nothing of use for her current situation; a compact bedroll, enough field rations for two days, blaster cleaning kit, armor repair kit, survival multi-tools, and a weak plasma torch for emergency mechanical repairs. Methodically, she began to return everything to its place in the kit and stood to her feet to shake out the restlessness in her legs. Her shoulders were sore from the weight of the pack, so she rubbed them.

She glanced at Kylo Ren through the night vision visor. He was absently jostling the lightsaber hilt on his belt as though he were considering attacking the barrier again, not that the last three times had accomplished much apart from singeing superficial gashes in the walls around the entrance.

She was starting to wish she hadn’t given into his seduction in the elevator, even though the simple memory of it was enough to elicit a half-hearted twitch between her legs. She would have preferred to be working on her shift now, facing familiar problems with logical solutions. Instead, she was trapped in a tomb with a man whose personality she was beginning to dislike more by the second.

“ **I should’ve left you on the shuttle,** ” he snapped, doubtless after seeing where her thoughts had veered.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said before she could stop herself. And as an afterthought, she added, “Sir _._ ”

He unfolded his long body and faced her slowly. Even though she felt the blood drain from her face in disbelief over her brazen disrespect, she didn’t take it back. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat. There was no way back now, only forward.

“ **You should be grateful for this opportunity.** ”

Tamira’s clammy face flushed hot, and her fists tightened at her sides.

“The only reason you brought me with you is because you didn’t want everyone to know you’d finger-fucked a junior tech in your shuttle,” she blurted.

A millisecond later, she clasped a hand to her gaping mouth, bewildered. Apparently suppressing her thoughts made them come out in other ways, but it was out there, now.

He didn’t react with immediate anger, like she expected.

“ **Come here,** ” he said, sounding completely calm. Fear flashed. He was going to kill her, she was sure.

But he’d given an order. Like a woman walking to her doom, Tamira crossed the room. Her footfalls echoed ominously, and her hands knitted together behind her back.

When she neared, Kylo Ren turned to the side and looked at the door. He gestured at the symbols.

“ **The words on this door are carved in the ancient Sith language,** ” he stated. She could tell that he was making an effort to speak with patience and as her disbelief dropped away, she found herself curious to know more.

“What does it say?” she asked, testing the waters.

“ **It’s the Sith code,** ” he answered. “ **Do you know it?** ”

Tamira took a shaky breath, beginning to adjust to the possibility that she wasn’t going to die, not yet anyway.

“Yes. All Nominals are taught a basic history of Force use. With focus on the Sith adepts, of course.”

He held up the mask.

“ **This artifact is made powerful by what it contains: the collected life force energy of a hundred sentient beings from across the galaxy.** ” He turned it to stare into its face contemplatively. “ **Damned souls, some might say.** **They are imprisoned, severed from the universal Force in an existence of pure agony, unable to voice their tortured screams. Forever.** ”

Tamira stared at the object in his hand. She understood why it looked so heavy.

She remembered the Devaronian spectre’s silent scream and hollow eyes. Gooseflesh erupted across her arms, and she hugged them close.

“Whoever put it here didn’t want it to be found,” she said, thinking aloud more than talking to him.

“ **Clearly** ,” he answered anyway with a little impatience. “ **Now you know everything relevant.** ”

“Thank you, Sir,” she said with the sincerity befitting his gesture of goodwill.

Determined to make an attempt to be useful, she'd turned toward the writing around the door, already puzzling over its contextual significance when he spoke again.

“ **That isn't why I brought you, by the way.** ”

“What?” she said, her mind elsewhere.

“ **When you said that I only brought you because I'd…** ” he faltered.

She was at a loss.

“...Sir?”

“ **I wasn’t worried for myself. I was simply considering… I didn't want your career to suffer for what we did.** ”

“When you fingered me,” she supplied.

“ **Any of it,** ” he cut in with an edge of irritation. “ **If this were a normal situation, I wouldn’t have done it.** ” He quickly added, “ **with lower ranking personnel.** ”

Something occurred to her then, but it was too outlandish. Too implausible. She tried to move her attention onto the topic of their current predicament, but she found herself unable to focus.

She eyed him. Surely he wasn’t… it couldn't be.

“Sir… are you-”

“ **Enough,** ” he snapped, too quickly, turning away.

Tamira was stunned because she was certain that her suspicions were true, now. She couldn't believe it.

For a virgin, the Commander was extraordinarily skilled with his hands. And he’d been so self sure, enough that she wouldn’t have guessed. Knowing this, she put more effort to keep a tight rein on her thoughts. The one question she couldn’t silence as she regarded his long body and easy strength more closely, was _how_?

It seemed that despite his initial dismissal, he was allowing her to participate. She would take it as seriously as any other aspect of her job. Whether it was a test or a trap, or a combination of the two, there had to be a solution.

“What would happen if someone put it on?” she asked.

“ **Don’t be foolish,** ” he said sharply, turning to look at her. “ **There is no way to know what it would do to the wearer.** ”

But then he looked down at the mask in his hands and back up at her, and she could tell that he was already reconsidering.

She approached the doorway, regarding the writing etched around its border. The lettering flickered faintly, as though they were illuminated from within by a green flame. It had to be related to the Sith code somehow. The code, and the mask. It was all they had, all they’d been given.

“Sir… with your permission, I’d like to try it on.”

“ **Out of the question.** ”

“Do you have any better ideas?” she shot back, risking disrespect by speaking her mind. “If anything happened, it would happen to me.”

He was silent for a moment, standing there with his arms crossed.

“ **Fine,** ” he said finally. “ **Put it on. But I can’t promise I’ll be able to help you if it goes wrong.** ”

She nodded, feeling like she might have lost her senses. But inside of her she felt a burning ambition. As he extended the glowing red mask toward her, she accepted that this could be a mistake. An eternity of agony was something she’d prefer to avoid. But in doing this, if she managed to help their situation, perhaps even get them out… it would be worth it. For her career at the very least.

It was an ugly thing, cold metal tarnished and blackened by time on the outside. The red aura that wafted above it like glowing steam had no smell or texture, but she avoided touching it all the same as she turned the mask around to look at the inside. Unlike the front of the mask, it was smooth and burnished a fiery bronze, untouched it seemed, by time.

The hum hovering just outside of her hearing grew in strength until it set her teeth on edge. An iridescent shimmer passed over the interior of the mask. She told herself as she brought it to her face that it was just a mask, no more.

Warm, smooth metal fit over her face perfectly, as though it were molded to her shape. Colors and light bled and left trails, and the humming that seemed to emanate from the mask seeped into her marrow until she felt the quivering energy throughout her body.

Kylo Ren stared, and like a ship’s sensory nodes coming online, her awareness of his state came into sharp focus. Like a punch to the gut, she felt his breathless anticipation, and… his awe.

“ **Daws,** ” he said quietly. “ **How does it feel?** ”

She licked her dry lips and, holding it to her face by the chin, looked around, hoping to see something different through its eyes. The mask seemed to cast a reddish light in her surroundings, almost like enhanced low light vision, so even the dark corners were visible to her. Other than that, she didn't feel so different.

“It feels fine,” she said. She expected her voice to be muffled, but it sounded clear to her. “Though I’m perhaps slightly more perceptive than before…”

She glanced to the doorway and gasped. Holding the mask to her face she came closer to it, blinking her eyes up at the text to make sure they weren't playing tricks on her. But it was apparent they weren't. Some of the words etched over the door were now effusing a bloody red glow, like that of the mask.

“ **What is it?** ” he asked with an edge of excitement.

She pointed up to the glowing lettering near the beginning of the inscription.

“What exactly does this say? Just this part.”

There was a moment of hesitation before she heard him move to stand next to her. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but the Commander kept looking at her, as if he was unable to stop himself.

“ **‘Only Passion’** ,” he said. She nodded, then pointed at the red words at the end, looking at him when he didn't answer immediately. He was staring at her. “ **‘Will set me free.’** ”

“Only passion will set me free?” she repeated. She slipped the mask off to look, and her vision returned to normal. No words were highlighted, and all she could see was what the glowing barrier illuminated. “What could it mean?”

“ **It's a riddle,** ” he answered, more quietly. “ **If the words are only apparent through the eyes of the mask, then it stands to reason that one must be wearing it as it is solved.** ”

“Okay,” she started, her mind working. She held the mask to her face again, and found that she much preferred how things looked with it on. Her sight was clearer, even than with the visor. “So… passion. Only passion…  according to the code the opposite of passion is peace, right?”

“ **The Sith word for passion has many meanings. Doubtless this is why the language was chosen in this case, to lend ambiguity.** ”

Tamira had to wonder why he sounded so grim. She glanced over to him. She could see by the tense set of his shoulders, and the way his right hand hovered over the lightsaber, that something was on his mind, not that he was letting her know.

“Sir?”

“ **The Jedi tenets encourage calm, balanced detachment. If rightful death is carried out, then it must be done without anger, or joy. The Sith, however… believed that emotion granted strength. Power. Victory. A killing driven by rage, or anger, was righteous... I may have solved this, Daws. But I am not so eager to see it through.** ”

Tamira understood too well what he was implying. But she wouldn't accept it. She shook her head, dropping the mask so that it dangled from one hand at her side. Her heart hammered in her chest.

“Sir, there's got to be another way… surely you aren't so angry with me as to… I mean, it has to be passionate, right?”

“ **I am so often… filled with rage. For many reasons. But no, I'm not angry with you, Daws.** ” He looked down, and she could tell he meant it. “ **I would prefer not to have to kill you. But grief, regret, and pain, if strong enough, fall within the definition of ‘passion’ in the Sith language. Perhaps… that’s why you're here.** ”

“Now hold on,” she started, a rising edge in her voice, raising her hands between them. “Wait a minute. What about other emotions? Passionate joy, or -or love?”

“ **I feel neither of those things. Attachment leads to weakness. Detachment grants me the strength upon which my power is founded. I've denied myself to better focus on what is important.** ”

“Denied yourself? Hold on. Does that mean you're celibate?”

“ **Of my own choosing, yes,** ” he answered, perhaps a little too quickly. Tamira shook her head, still not absorbing this.

“But… forgoing love, or even sex… it seems pretty dispassionate to me.”

“ **I'm above such base things,** ” he said haughtily. “ **There is no need when my thirst for vengeance against the last Jedi is great enough to drive me.** ”

“You didn't seem above those things in your fucking shuttle,” she shot back, getting irritated. “You could at least consider other options before killing me, _sir_.”

“ **Why are you so obsessed with sex?!** ” he snapped suddenly

“Obsessed with-” she sputtered, “I'm not _obsessed_.”

“ **You're constantly thinking about it. With your thoughts so loud in my head I can't escape it.** ”

“Yeah, well, forgive me, but that’s normal. The only reason it bothers you so much is that you’re a... “ she stopped herself. “Because you’ve never done it. It’s not a big deal, not to most people. But in your effort to avoid thinking about it, you’ve only made it harder to resist.”

Kylo Ren was silent for a moment, but she could hear him breathing. She’d managed to get him riled up over this. It was the first time she’d been confronted with any kind of vulnerability in him, and it put her in an awkward place. In this, she was apparently more experienced.

“Sir, how old are you?” she asked, daring to be bold. With discussions of death and sex, it didn’t seem as taboo to ask him something so personal.

“ **Twenty-nine,** ” he answered.

Tamira clenched her teeth to stop her mouth from falling open and nodded as though she accepted this information easily.

But he was so _young_. So much younger than she’d assumed. He was only a few years older than herself and already a Commander. Most of the talk surrounding him was rumor and speculation as far as his age or appearance, though such things were always spoken in hushed tones as though he might hear them. He was a mystery, and maybe that was partly what drew her to him. Even so, knowing for certain that he was neither so old nor too young was somehow... reassuring.

“Commander,” she started carefully, considering that not only was she addressing a superior but a sexually inexperienced man. “There’s a connection between us. You’ve felt it, and I know I sure as hell have. Just… consider the fact that we’re both here now. Consider what led up to us both being here. You don’t believe in coincidences, right? What would have happened had you left me in the shuttle and came here on your own?”

“ **I don’t know.** ”

“‘Only passion will set me free,’” she quoted, motioning toward the doorway with the mask in her hand. “It’s at least worth a try, wouldn’t you agree? If that doesn’t work… I guess we’ll have to reconsider our options.”

She didn’t like the way that sounded, but it was a pretty compelling argument and she got the sense that she was beginning to sway him.

With curiosity, she looked down at the mask, and then brought it back to her face. She could see him more clearly again through its eyes, and to a point, sense his Force presence better when she wore it. Even so, he remained well guarded. His hands were fisted at his sides, but not hovering over his lightsaber hilt as he was before.

“I have to say,” she started, taking a step toward him, feeling braver with her face hidden. “I’ve never been so hung up on a man before. Honestly, I’m not the kind of person who lets it interfere with my life. But with you… I thought something was wrong with me.”

“ **There’s nothing wrong with you. What drives the Force to manifest itself the ways that it does is unknowable.** ”

Tamira nodded, watching him as she came closer. He seemed reticent, a little stiff-backed, but he wasn’t stopping her or backing away.

“It doesn’t need to be personal,” she said, dropping her eyes. Behind the mask, her face burned. “It’s almost logical, even.”

“ **Logical… is not the word I’d use,** ” he said. Even through the vocoder, his voice sounded thicker. She was trembling in her gut. It was a heavy, warm feeling, mingled apprehension and excitement. He wanted this, it was clear. He wanted this to be the way out.

“I want you to fuck me, Sir,” she said, letting her voice drop into a huskier register. “For the mission. But also because I want it.”

“ **Enough,** ” he said, but more softly than before. “ **You don’t need to convince me any further. Prepare yourself.** ”

Tamira was at a loss with his abrupt agreement. Prepare herself? Kylo Ren turned away to face the doorway, poised with his arms crossed over his chest as in deep thought. Her neck burned, and she was starting to sweat in her uniform again.

She fiddled with the hidden zipper along the front of her uniform jacket, her eyes flickering to him uncertainly. Thinking of the bedroll in the kit, she walked hurriedly over to it using the mask to illuminate the way, her mind racing.

Was this actually happening? She felt overly hot and short of breath. So many times she’d thought about this. Of all the ways it had played out in her head, none of them were like this.

As she pulled out her bedroll, she started to feel nervous. Would he take off his helmet? Would she see him naked? Should she be naked?

She ran her fingers through her loose hair, massaging her sore scalp from where her regulation up-do had been pulled tight. She tried to shake off her own nerves. She’d had enough partners in her adult life to be fairly confident in herself. She wasn’t unusually sexually active, but after all, same-rank relations were within regulations, and there were some pretty hot soldiers and other personnel in the First Order.

It made no sense that she felt so anxious. It wasn't _her_ first time. The Commander was so… commanding, usually. But here, she might have to guide things herself.

In a way she felt like it was almost her duty. She smirked to herself.

She unzipped her uniform jacket, letting it hang open over her black sleeveless undershirt, and removed her shoes. She left everything else on.

In her socks, she walked across the smooth, cool stone to the center of the room, and the door. A couple paces behind where Kylo Ren was standing, she began to open the bedroll. It was some kind of foam that regained its shape when it was unrolled, and as it filled out, she smoothed it down.

With a quick glance to him, she crawled onto the bedroll and reclined on her elbows. She moved the mask to wipe the beads of sweat from her forehead and took another look at it. She couldn’t imagine wanting to look at it while fucking someone. In that, at least, she had the better end of the deal.

She put the mask back on and cleared her throat.

Kylo Ren turned and looked down at her.

“ **I told you to prepare yourself,** ” he said.

“I am prepared,” she answered, accidentally letting some humorous irony slip into her voice.

“ **You’re fully clothed.** ”

Tamira lowered the mask and looked at him with her bare-faced bemusement.

“Sir **…** ” she started, pursing her lips as she tried to figure out the best way to say this. “Some people find it enjoyable to undress their partner. It can help inspire interest. I mean… if you don’t want to, I can just do it myself. I just thought it might help.”

“ **It’s not necessary. You’re desirable to me already.** ”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. While the compliment was appreciated, certainly, it was plain that this was going to be more difficult than she thought.

“Well maybe _I’d_ enjoy it,” she said carefully. “This doesn’t need to be personal, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable for both of us.”

She was already nervous about what would happen if this _didn’t_ work, and it didn’t help that he seemed nervous to even try. This was not the time for performance anxiety. His manual dexterity was already proven, and she was achingly curious to know about the rest of him. She would make this work.

“ **Very well.** ”

His boots stopped beside the bedroll and he knelt down beside her with one knee on the padding. He moved to take off one of his gloves, but she stopped him.

“If you could leave those on,” she said, biting her lip.

He paused, flexing his gloved fingers and looking down at them.

“ **You like them?** ” he asked, quiet.

Tamira looked at the smooth black leather and the way the light of the doorway behind him made a soft, diffuse reflection on the creamy surface. Now that she was allowed to look her fill of him, instead of avoiding the urge for furtive glances when they were both on the bridge, she could appreciate the physical things that made her stomach flutter. Like his large, strong hands, and the way they looked fitted into his gloves. It had been enough to drive her to distraction, even before she knew firsthand how they felt against her skin.

“Yes,” was all she said.

“ **Put the mask on,** ” he said.

Tamira complied. In this position, looking up at him, she didn’t need to hold it in place. Propped on one elbow, she took his hesitant hand in hers and brought it underneath the open front of her jacket. She pressed his palm over her breast. He squeezed of his own accord.

Finally, she thought with a sigh when his hand slid down to her stomach and worked the front of her top higher. The warm leather skidded slowly over her sweaty skin, and his fingers gripped the soft parts of her on the way back up to her breasts. This time, he slid his hand underneath her unsexy standard-issue brassiere and cupped the soft swell of flesh.

The seam on one of his fingers brushed coarsely over a nipple and she sucked in her breath. He let go, and suddenly he was pushing his hands between her upper arms and the jacket, and pulling it down her arms. As hot as she felt, the air on her skin was more than welcome.

He wasted no time pulling her shirt over her head, almost too eager when it go caught on her mask, but his urgency was a welcome change to the way he was before.

The brassiere came next, and it was barely off of her before he palmed both of her breasts tightly and brushed the leather seams on his thumbs over her nipples.

She whimpered and flinched for the sharp jolt of hot pleasure it elicited. Her forearms were still a little tangled in her brassiere but made no effort to free them just yet.

“ **Do you like pain?** ” he asked. The tremor in his voice had been almost undetectable, but it made her stomach flip. She imagined that the Commander was skilled in causing pain. And as much as she liked to test limits in the right context, she just wasn’t sure enough about him.

“A little,” she said, watching his hands squeeze her breasts, fingers gripping, luxuriating in the soft flesh. “But not too much.”

He made a wordless sound of acknowledgement before pinching both puckered buds between his thumbs and forefingers. It was just short of painful, somehow right in the sweet spot, and she moaned appreciatively. Her spine tightened and she stretched, pushing her chest harder against his hands.

His breathing had gone ragged, and she thought she could relate. His focus on her was warm and tingly, and the way the mask seemed to infuse her with its energy made her feel pleasantly lightheaded.

He seemed content to tease her, and she couldn’t deny the effect it was having on her. Gone was her anxiousness, and his earlier stilted demeanor, replaced by a sort of stunned, hungry anticipation.

Any other time, she might have enjoyed having her breasts toyed with until she was a quivering, desperate mess. In fact, if they both made it out of this alive, and amicably, she would try to make that happen.

“ **Your thoughts are… pleasing to me,** ” he said roughly, squeezing her breasts hard enough to make her squirm. She untangled herself from her brassiere finally and lay her hands on top of his. Looking through the mask, light seemed to have a halo, even what was reflected off of the chrome detailing on his helmet face.

“They get much worse, I assure you,” she said with a hidden smirk. Gently, she pushed his hands down to her waist, and the waistband of her jodhpur slacks.

He hooked his thumbs under the band, touching the hot skin of her lower belly underneath. The proximity was enough to make the flesh between her thighs tighten.

To encourage him, she used her knee to gently nudge his groin. He was rock hard, and the contact was enough to make him wheeze. His fingers set to work quickly to unfasten her fly.

She moved to help him pull her pants down, but he stopped what he was doing to seize her wrists in his hands. His long fingers encircled them completely, as solid as shackles.

“ **Do you want me to restrain you?** ” he asked. Somehow, it had sounded both like a threat and a genuine question. His forcefulness caught her off guard and sent a hot shiver down her spine.

“I ah… you don’t have to,” she said hesitantly, even though she could feel her cheeks flood with heat at the thought. Perhaps that was also something best explored for another time. As this progressed, Tamira realized just how much she wanted to revisit their mutual attraction once they were back shipside.

He released her wrists with his hands.

With a subtle flick of his fingers, she felt a wash of warm tingles erupt on her arm where his gloved hands had held her.

Her wrists tugged together of their own accord. Her breath caught in her throat. Without touching her, he had her arms pinned over her head.

His unseen hold on her wrists released and she was left wide-eyed and panting. Her arms lay limp where he’d left them as though he still held them there.

“ **If you’re right about this, Daws, I’m willing to show you the extent of my abilities. Another time.** ”

She hoped so.

He unfastened her pants, and she lifted her hips, helping progress with her body instead of her hands. He peeled them down her legs, running a hand over her newly exposed skin once they were off completely.

Tamira breathed hard against the inside of the mask, shaking with anticipation, but her damp breath didn’t become trapped there. It was almost as though the mask was absorbing her breath. The implications of that troubled her, but soon Kylo Ren’s smooth hands were both sliding up the inside of her calves, knees, and thighs. Her legs twitched open.

She knew she was wet before he gently prodded the damp crotch of her underwear. The contact sent a shiver through her and she tilted her hips, seeking more. His face regarded hers, and she had to wonder how ridiculous she looked wearing the Sith mask.

“ **You don’t look ridiculous,** ” he said a bit out of breath as he stroked her groin through her underwear with the lazy flick of a couple of fingers. The other slid over her hip bone and belly. Her skin tingled where it touched.

“Sir,” she panted, impatient with the pacing. She pushed her legs open wider, lifted her hips. “if you could at least try not to read my thoughts, I’d appreciate it.”

“ **If I were able to, I would. But what I’m feeling now is… beyond my knowledge of the Force.** ” His free hand slid up her torso and between her breasts, to her neck. Leaning over her so he could do both, his mask peered down at her. His fingers closed loosely around her neck before slipping back down to a breast. He palmed it, pinched the nipple, and Tamira’s entire body jerked, mashing her pussy against his taunting hand.

“ **You’re in my head,** ” he spoke in a low warble. “ **I can feel what I’m doing to you. This is… like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I need more.** ”

Tamira tried to understand what he was saying, but it didn’t make sense. And at that moment, he sat up and removed one of his gloves. Without pausing, he wrenched down her underwear hard enough that the waistband left a fleeting friction burn on her skin. He slicked his finger between her folds and hooked the digit into her.

They both groaned at the same time, and he looked down with a shudder.

She panted and writhed, clenching around his finger. He began to move it in and out of her moist cunt, and when he added a second finger, the sweet ache sent a wash of heat through her body.

His motions were jolting his entire body, and his hips moved forward slightly in time with his fingers.

“Sir **,** ” she gasped, straining her thighs as wide as she could. “Please.”

Breathing hard, he withdrew his hands from between her legs and her breast. He slipped his hands under the front of his black tunic and worked at the fly of the pants underneath. It seemed that he was going to keep his clothes and his helmet on.

It was a good thing, she thought. After all, this wasn’t meant to be personal. But, as she watched his hands move under the front of his tunic, she couldn’t help the thrill she felt for the intimacy of what they had done, and were about to do. Whatever the reason.

He locked onto her face and pulled himself forward on top of her. Leaning on one arm, she looked down between them to see him grasping a length of thick, blushing cock in his bare hand.

“ **Look at me,** ” he said. She tore her eyes away reluctantly and peered up at his mask through hers. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel his trembling anticipation.

She felt his cockhead nudge her mons and drag a wet trail down to her slit. Tamira pulled her arms forward and draped them around his neck, never once looking away. His thick gland probed for her opening, easy for how slippery she was. Too soon, he pushed forward, penetrating just the entrance at an uncomfortable angle. She squeaked involuntarily, then bit her tongue, embarrassed.

He tried again, and this time the shaft slid home.

Kylo Ren uttered a guttural groan as he eased his length into her as far as he could. Tamira panted when the ache of the sweet stretch settled into her spine. Adjusting his balance so that his body curved over her more completely, he made some shallow tentative motions with his hips before plunging into her hard enough to rock her entire body.

Tamira gasped, and her hands tightened into fists in the shredded fabric of his hood. He did it again, and she could feel his whole body behind it. His black helmet tipped back and he groaned as he penetrated her, sliding along her tight walls and hitting her cervix.

It was rough. Like any other inexperienced man in bed, he hadn’t found his rhythm, nor did he seem to understand how best to use his strength and the size of his cock to his advantage. But Tamira fucking loved it.

Beneath him, she arched her back, rocked her hips to meet his as best she could. He slid his bare palm up her stomach, nails digging into her skin as he fucked her, grasping her breast. Her link with him magnified by the mask, she sensed his euphoria, his wonderment, and a dark impulse that gave her a hot thrill straight to her cunt.

“Do it,” she panted.

“ **What?** ” he asked breathlessly.

“Whatever you’re thinking. Whatever you need to do.”

It was a dangerous permission, but Tamira felt reckless, almost intoxicated. And the small thrill of fear and desire she sensed in him when she said that made the impact of his cock deep inside of her that much more intense.

“ **I’m not going to kill you,** ” he said in a shaky growl, slowing his thrusts. She nodded, impatient.

His bare hand snaked up to her collarbone, and then her throat. Feeling his skin on hers was its own special reward. The fact that it was the only part of him, apart from his cock, that was exposed made her feel powerless in a way she realized that she’d always craved.

He rolled his hips forward, already moving more smoothly than he had at first. His warm, broad hand pinched the sides of her neck. She immediately felt the tightness that came with the arrested blood flow.

It wasn’t enough to be dangerous, though the act of doing it seemed to incense him. His thrusting cock hammered her, faster, harder.

His throaty grunts filtered through the vocoder and sent the extra blood flow between her legs to add to the gathering tightness.

The web between his thumb and index finger pressed carefully on her trachea. Tamira sucked in a groaning breath through her restricted airway. Her face felt hot and tight beneath the mask. Her head tipped back, eyes pitching up under her lids as the compounding sensations and the pounding pressure in her cunt and head began to consume her senses.

Kylo Ren let up the pressure before it got too intense, but he didn’t stop. The rhythm he’d found was beginning to stutter, and he was breathing was coarse and erratic. His thumb stroked the underside of her jaw and then he released her neck. A second later, she could feel the pressure on her neck again, but not from his hand. Tingling, warm, and uniform, just shy of choking, he was using the Force.

Through bleary eyes, she watched his bare hand move between them, where it found her clit.

His thumb mashed against the sensitive nub artlessly, but there was enough pleasure in his harsh ministrations to bring her to the brink.

The force tightened around her neck, squeezing her blood vessels and restricting her air until her lungs started to burn and she could see pinpricks in the outer corners of her vision.

He buried his cock deep, slipped a wet thumb over her clitoris, and dragged her over the edge.

At that moment, the pressure on her neck released and she came. In a moment of pure, mind-blowing euphoria, Tamira let out a hoarse cry.

Kylo Ren’s rhythm broke, and with a guttural grunt, he spilled a hot flood deep inside of her.

His hips moved in a weak couple of thrusts as his cock continued to pulse in waves. Panting, she held tight to him as she waited for the aftershocks to lessen in intensity, but each twitch of the muscles inside of her, and every additional pump of his hips sent another jolt of residual pleasure straight to her gut.

“The… barrier,” she managed to gasp, trying to move her liquefied muscles to look behind him.

Kylo Ren took a deep breath and craned to peer back over his shoulder.

They both saw at the same time that the shimmering barrier was gone.

She didn't have time to exalt in this fact, because both of them were seized with the same urgency.

Kylo Ren eased himself out of her and she pushed herself upright. She felt languid and sleepy as she reached for her bra and her other clothes. He wiped his wet softening dick on the underside of his tunic and tucked himself back inside.

She didn't miss how he kept glancing at her as she dressed herself, and only then did she realize that she was still wearing the mask. The friction of her sweat had adhered it to her face, and she pulled it off.

“ **The mask suits you,** ” he said, handing her her pants before rising to his feet.

She looked up at him and smiled.

“So does yours.”

“ **You like it?** ” he asked, pulling on his glove. Though he'd tried to sound nonchalant, there was a note of vulnerability in his question that triggered her empathy.

“I like everything,” she said, giving him a meaningful look. He met her stare for a moment before taking the mask from her and turning away.

Smiling to herself, she finished dressing.

The Commander, because that's what he was once again, took the mask as she gathered her kit. She stuffed the bedroll back into it, slid it over her shoulders, and donned her poncho.

Without further delay, they left the chamber.

Tamira spared a final glance behind her.

The sight of dozens of glowing spectral figures standing motionless past the doorway made her heart skip a beat. But when she blinked, they were gone.

She'd never forget how each of them had been frozen in an expression of mute horror, mouths stretched open in voiceless screams.

* * *

 

Most of the shuttle flight back to the Finalizer was spent in silence. Both of them were occupied with their own thoughts it seemed, but it was markedly less tense than the flight down to Devoran.

When the enormous wedge of the Finalizer came into view through the front windows, Tamira took a deep breath. Back to reality.

“ **You performed admirably, Daws,** ” Kylo Ren said, typing in the docking code.

“Uhm, thanks?” she said, a little nonplussed with his strange compliment.

“ **I am referring to the mission itself,** ” he said. She thought she detected an audible smile, but she couldn’t be sure. “ **Speaking as your Commander, you entered a potentially dangerous encounter without prior experience. You remained collected and rational when others might have panicked. And you managed to find the best outcome to what could have been a very... unfortunate situation.** ”

Tamira was speechless. She had not been expecting his praise, and had no words to answer him. He continued to go through the docking procedure as the Super Star Destroyer filled the front view.

“ **I know you’re slated for potential advancement. I will be sure to give my endorsement. You’ll have to meet the usual requirements, of course. But if today is any indication, I suspect you will continue to move up in rank in short order. On your own merit.** ”

“Thank you, Sir,” she said, feeling strangely bashful all of a sudden. “What are you going to say about the mission?”

“ **I must tell the Supreme Leader everything, including the circumstances of our escape. But I assure you such base matters are of no interest to him. No one else needs to know what you were willing to do for the Order, Daws. It’s of no consequence to any but us.** ”

She nodded and fell silent as the commander shuttle pulled into the port hangar’s outer shielding and came to a stop.

“Thank you, Commander,” she said. He nodded, so formal now that they were back in the hangar, but there was something about his demeanor that was changed. He was completely calm.

“ **You may spend the rest of your shift however you want, but I expect you at your post tomorrow.** ”

She smiled as he turned to the door and activated the docking ramp controls, relieved that she didn’t have to show up on the bridge after everything. She needed some time to adjust.

“ **Thank you, Daws. It was…** ” he started, pausing at the door with his hand on the frame. She looked at him, still flushed from his praise. “ **It was enlightening.** ”

And without another word, he left.

* * *

 

Supreme Leader Snoke listened patiently as his apprentice gave him an almost clinical point-by-point retelling of the mission to retrieve the mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard.

“You did well, Commander,” Snoke said solemnly when he was done. “And now we have yet another valuable resource to put toward our cause. I commend you on your ingenuity.”

“ **The Nominal I was with deserves credit as well, Supreme Leader. She has brought the Order honor with this victory. She shows great promise.** ”

“Noted. Take the mask to my vault. I want you to meditate on your experiences.”

“ **Yes, Supreme Leader. I will do as you say,** ” he said with a quick bow.

Snoke dismissed the young man with a nod and watched his small figure exit. His step was lighter, he noted, resting his chin on a grey, bony hand. When the doors to the chamber closed, he sighed.

Even the Supreme Leader hadn’t been sure how the mission was going to end. Knowing him, Kylo Ren might have just as easily killed the girl. The result would have been the same, not that his trusting apprentice would ever know.

As it was, Snoke’s subtle, ongoing influence on the two of them had finally come to fruition. The mission, and the simple trap he’d laid for them in the Jedi temple, had played out exactly as he’d hoped.

Maybe now that Kylo Ren was getting laid, he would be better focused on his training.

Done with his musing, Snoke deactivated the holoprojector and the audience chamber went dark.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Some notes on the canon research I did that I strategically left out because no one cares: They are on the temple of Eedit on Devaron, which used to be a Jedi temple and school. The mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard is a thing from Aftermath, and I took artistic license with the description of its powers, and the ghosts and shit.
> 
> I had fun with this, even though it took me awhile to write (and ended up becoming more than the shortfic I'd had planned) so I hope you liked it!  
> If so, let me know what you think!  
> Tip your writer! I accept payment in the form of kudoses and comments. <3


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